Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, August 30, 2008

Midland's Clayton Williams said it was his decision to call off a summer visit to Tall City by Republican candidate for presidential candidate John McCain.

Williams told the Reporter-Telegram on Friday the McCain campaign was always willing to come to Midland but there was no need to put the Arizona senator through a visit filled with negative publicity.

"I had to kill it," Williams said. "There were four days of headlines (from the originally scheduled visit in June). I thought let's let him have the money. There would have been more headlines, 'McCain returns to Midland to get money from rich oil men.'"

Williams also mentioned how the now-infamous joke he made about rape nearly two decades ago during a 1990 gubernatorial campaign had been rehashed by the national media. Liberal commentators were having a field day, connecting McCain with Williams, and Williams conceded it was hard to put his fellow Republican in the situation of defending himself against the onslaught certain to come his way.

"I have enough scar tissue on my body from the arrows they shot at me when I ran for governor," Williams said. "They were trying to tie (Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama to crooked politicians in Chicago, but they (the McCain campaign) were being tied to me.

"Who would have thought 18 years later it would have been an issue in the campaign? Who would have ever thought it? I'd like to think I am a solid citizen. I didn't feel like the kiss of death. … Once in print always in print."

Williams said he estimated ,1.2 million was still raised for McCain's campaign, although that figure would have been closer to ,2 million had an event taken place in Midland.

Former Midland Mayor Ernest Angelo said Williams' decision to move on shows what kind of person Williams is and that the McCain campaign was lucky he turned out to be that type of person.

Midland Congressman Mike Conaway called Williams "an absolute statesman about the situation. Some of us who know him well were offended and wanted to do something, but he said 'No, it's not about me. It's about beating Obama.' … The situation could have been a problem if he hadn't taken that stance."

As part of the fundraiser, McCain was expected to take part in a meeting with Williams and some of the larger donors. An issue certain to come up was the Arizona senator's stance on energy issues, including drilling. It was noteworthy that despite the event not taking place, a shift took place in McCain's off-shore drilling position, something he said was due to sky-rocketing gas prices.